1 dead after fire at rooming house in Toronto's east end

A person is dead after an early morning fire in Toronto's east end Thursday, paramedics say.

Firefighters were called to a semi-detached rooming house in the area of Gerrard Street East and Coxwell Avenue around 5:30 a.m. They arrived to find smoke coming from the residence.

One person was removed from the home without any vital signs and pronounced dead by paramedics, according to Fire Chief Matthew Pegg, who spoke to media at the scene.

Pegg did not have any further information about the deceased.

The fire itself was "very quickly controlled," Pegg said, and damage to the structure was limited to a single room.

Pegg said seven people lived in the house and the other tenants have indicated that it did not have working smoke alarms. A TTC bus was brought in to provide temporary shelter for the residents displaced by the fire.

The Ontario Fire Marshal will investigate the origin and circumstances of the blaze alongside counterparts from Toronto Fire and Toronto police, Pegg said.